Bloom County 2019 by Berkeley Breathed for November 22, 2018

Yes but let us not forget what happened to the men of Sparta.

Friendship & happiness is a whole lot better than spewing political diatribe… Happy Holidays!

Opus should read more history. Women haven’t come to power so often, but when they do they seem to be about as aggressive as men or sometimes more aggressive that average. In the first category I would put: Maria Theresa of Austria etc. and Elisabeth Queen of England. In the second: Empress Catherine II of Russia and Irene of the Byzantine Empire. That last one had her son’s eyes put out to keep him from replacing her in power.

The reigns? Lol. Reins perhaps, or was that a deliberate slip?

CATS!!

Yeah, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman can get together with Kellyanne Conway and straighten everything out, right?!

Hand over the “reigns?” Oh, Mr. Breathed . . . .

Sigh….reins not reigns

Women tend to be a civilizing influence on society. Organizations that are exclusively male tend to go off the rails. I give you the Catholic Church as the prime example.

Santa’s Elves? Seeing as it’s the big guy’s traditional leaving for bad kids, methinks the anti-coal people wouldn’t like that…

It is the comic account of one woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War, as Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate a peace.

“. . . , maybe it’s time to hand over the reigns” insults readers and does a disservice to Breathed himself. Berkeley should know better. It’s “reins,” not “reigns.” Pithy, sardonic humor does not get a pass for poor diction, grammar, syntax, or, in this case, using the wrong homophone.

It’s a stretch to argue that “hand over the reigns” is a subtle pun furthering Binkley’s proposed solution to fix the problems caused by “10,000 years of civilization” by passing “the baton” to whatever preposterous groups spring to the minds of Binkley and Milo. Opus’s suggestion is the only one with merit, but, of course, Binkley and Milo ignore Opus and Oliver dismisses the idea out of hand.

I like Breathed’s humor a great deal, but it’s not so clever as to rely on such a subtle pun. He’s an honest guy. Ask him if he meant “reigns” as a pun or if he screwed up and simply used the wrong homophone.

We women are certainly as humanly flawed as men, also as intelligent and logical. So if nothing else, having a representative proportion in government and industry would be not only fair but logical, and indicative of a system and culture with those characteristics. Having that not be the case says far more about those who zealously or fearfully guard personal power and status quo and their supporters than anything else.

Earth can be advertised in the Intergalactic Tribune as a “fixer-upper” and flipped by a developer.

Honestly, the nitpicking over one word instead of admiring BB’s wit and artistry.

Might be fun to see a second Olga of Kiev at the reins………………!

Couldn’t this have been written during the days when Texas elected both Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan?

Regarding the “reins” vs “reigns” issue: while I deplore America’s inability to spell or use their own language correctly, I hope this is a pun. Has anyone noticed how this administration is referred to in terms of “ruling” and “assuming power” rather than “governing”, as should be the case with any Republic? That’s what happens when you put a conscience-less bully in charge of things.

The First Peoples in many lands are true democracies, guided by those women beyond childbearing. It is the Matrons and Crones who have the wisdom of experience that are best equipped to lead. Witness Nancy Pelosi.

I’m a writer and editor. My first thought upon seeing “reigns” instead of “reins” was: Goof time. But then I realized he’s talking about handing over power of government to someone else, so “reigns” is cleverly correct. Well done, Mr. Breathed.

Relax, little boys. Things aren’t as bad as they seem.

And, besides, the Space Aliens aren’t going to bother with waiting for you to hand over the reins (nor the “reigns”)….

Maybe back then, women had to be exceptionally ruthless to come to power at all. Even now, women have to be very assertive to be heard at all.

Berkeley, what would Byron think about this?

I won’t generalize to all women, but I can certainly think of one woman who would have been a far better president than the one we currently have.

Wrong “reigns.”

What, no discussion of reign versus reign? Just an all-too-common mistake or subtle, sly word play?